How does a Virginia landlord lawfully end a tenancy, and when may a tenant leave early?

The end-of-term notice duty binds only a landlord who owns more than four rental dwelling units in the Commonwealth, or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four, held individually or through a business entity. For a landlord at or below that line nothing is owed: the fixed term ends on its stated date and the tenant must vacate promptly under section 55.1-1233. Every other answer in this record is the same across the whole state.

Count the rental dwelling units the landlord owns anywhere in Virginia, not the units in one building, and add any unit in which the landlord holds more than a 10 percent interest, personally or through a company. Above four, a written 60-day notice is owed before the end of the term, both of non-renewal and of any rent increase in a renewal term; at four or fewer, none is owed. The duty expressly does not reach a month-to-month tenancy that arose because the landlord consented to a holdover.

The switch changes: when a fixed-term lease ends.

Landlord: 30 days (given before the next rent-due date). Tenant: 30 days.

Both figures count backwards from the next rent due date, not forwards from the day the notice is served. A month-to-month notice must be served at least 30 days before a rent due date and a week-to-week notice at least seven days before one. On a lease with rent due on the first, a notice served on March 25 cannot end the tenancy on the April 1 due date, because fewer than 30 days separate the two; it reaches the May 1 due date instead, so the practical period is closer to five weeks than to a month. The tenancy therefore ends at a rent-due-date boundary rather than on a date the party giving notice chooses. The 60-day notice a large-scale non-renewal triggers, and the 60-day end-of-term notice a landlord with more than four units owes, are both counted against the end of the term instead, so the three Virginia figures are not measured the same way.

The termination date must fall on a rental-period boundary or a rent-due date.

Tiers: Two ordinary tracks and one tier that turns on what the landlord is doing. A month-to-month tenancy takes 30 days and a week-to-week tenancy seven, each counted before the next rent due date. Separately, an owner of multifamily premises who fails to renew the greater of 20 or more month-to-month tenancies, or 50 percent of the month-to-month tenancies, in the same premises within a consecutive 30-day period must give each of those tenants written notice at least 60 days before letting the tenancy expire; that 60-day notice is not required where the tenant has failed to pay rent. Because the test takes the greater of the two thresholds, a property with fewer than 40 month-to-month tenancies is gated by the flat figure of 20 and a property with more than 40 by the 50 percent figure, so the duty bites hardest on small and mid-sized multifamily properties. The chapter defines a multifamily dwelling unit as more than one single-family dwelling unit located in a building; it does not separately define multifamily premises, so the tier reaches buildings holding more than one dwelling unit and not detached single-family rentals. Virginia has no tier keyed to how long the tenant has lived there, to the age of the building, to the tenant's age or disability, or to any county or city.

The parties may agree to a different period. The 30 days is a default the lease may change, not a floor. Section 55.1-1253, subsection A ends with the words unless the rental agreement provides for a different notice period, and the clause is unqualified in either direction, so a lease may set a shorter period as well as a longer one. Section 55.1-1204, subsection A separately authorizes a lease to carry requirements for notice of intent to vacate or terminate the rental agreement. Pulling the other way, section 55.1-1208, subsection A makes unenforceable any lease term by which the tenant agrees to waive or forgo rights or remedies under the chapter; because the notice sentence states one period for both sides, a clause shortening the landlord's period while holding the tenant to 30 days sits in tension with that bar. No Virginia court has resolved the tension and this page does not resolve it either.

A statute requires the landlord's and tenant's periods to be equal, or bars a lease from imposing a longer period on one side.

Source of the period: a termination-notice statute states it.

Either the landlord or the tenant may end a month-to-month tenancy by serving written notice on the other at least 30 days before the next rent due date, and a week-to-week tenancy by written notice at least seven days before the next rent due date, unless the rental agreement provides for a different notice period; one sentence carries both sides, so the periods are the same in both directions (section 55.1-1253, subsection A). No reason need be given. The same subsection lets the landlord and tenant agree in writing to an early termination and provides that, where no such agreement is reached, the remedy-after-termination section governs instead, so a Virginia tenant who leaves early owes mitigated actual damages rather than a set charge. A second document is easy to miss: in a tenancy at will, a notice by either side of any change in the terms of the tenancy is itself a notice to vacate the premises, given as the rental agreement requires or as the law otherwise requires (section 55.1-1225). One tier sits above the ordinary periods: an owner of multifamily premises who does not renew the greater of 20 or more month-to-month tenancies, or 50 percent of them, in the same premises within a consecutive 30-day period owes each affected tenant 60 days' notice, except where the tenant has failed to pay rent (section 55.1-1253, subsection B). That tier binds owners only; there is no matching tenant-side figure. Beyond these sections the chapter's other termination provisions are all tied to a ground, and no periodic-notice period in Virginia turns on how long the tenant has lived in the unit or on where the property is.

No: no statewide rule requires a reason, and no statute expressly authorizes local ordinances.

Local just-cause or eviction-control ordinances: expressly preempted by statute. Virginia states the bar twice, in two registers. Section 55.1-1201, subsection A provides that the chapter applies to all jurisdictions in the Commonwealth and may not be waived or otherwise modified, in whole or in part, by the governing body of any locality, its boards, commissions or other instrumentalities, or by the courts of the Commonwealth. Subsection E adds that the chapter supersedes all other local ordinances or regulations concerning landlord and tenant relations and the leasing of residential property. A city just-cause ordinance would both modify the no-cause termination right and regulate landlord and tenant relations, so it is barred on the face of both clauses. Two local powers survive: a locality may establish or designate a mediation commission that is reconciliatory in nature only and acts on the parties' mutual agreement, and may pass ordinances designed to secure compliance with local property maintenance codes; and under section 55.1-1221 a locality may require a landlord renting five or more dwelling units in one multifamily building to install dead-bolt locks, door viewers, sliding-door pins and window locking devices to the statewide building code standard. What a Virginia locality may do about the amount of rent is a separate question, answered on the rent-increase page.

No reason is required to end a periodic tenancy or to let a fixed term expire in Virginia. The landlord gives the statutory notice, or the term runs out, and the tenancy ends; the chapter states no grounds, no coverage conditions, no relocation payment and no exemption schedule. Three narrow limits qualify that. Where the tenant is a victim of family abuse that occurred in the unit or on the premises and the perpetrator has been barred by the landlord or by a court order, the lease may not be terminated solely because of an act of family abuse against the tenant, provided the tenant supplies the order or the perpetrator has been barred (section 55.1-1245, subsection D). Public housing and other units regulated by the federal housing department are subject to the chapter, but federal regulations control where the two are inconsistent, so federal good-cause and grievance requirements reach those tenancies through that clause rather than through any Virginia statute. And from January 1, 2027 an act passed in 2026 will list refusing to renew the tenancy of a tenant receiving voucher or other rental assistance among the retaliatory actions the chapter forbids, with a safe harbor where the landlord does not renew for good cause; that is a change to the retaliation rules and does not make a ground necessary today.

A statute requires notice before a fixed term ends, or notice of non-renewal (60 days).

A landlord who owns more than four rental dwelling units in the Commonwealth, or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four, whether individually or through a business entity, must give written notice of non-renewal to a tenant no less than 60 days before the end of the rental agreement term (section 55.1-1204, subsection K). The same 60 days and the same landlord class govern written notice of any rent increase in a following term where the tenant has an option to renew or the lease renews automatically. A landlord at or below four units owes no end-of-term notice at all. The duty does not reach a month-to-month tenancy that arose because the landlord consented to a holdover. The sentence was written into the statute by two identical acts of 2025 and has been law since July 1, 2025; no Virginia decision construes it. One question the text leaves open should be read as open: the duty runs to any tenant and counts against the end of the rental agreement term, and a month-to-month tenancy has a term, so whether a landlord above the line owes 60 days for an ordinary month-to-month non-renewal alongside the 30-day termination notice is unsettled on the words, and the only express carve-out is the consented holdover.

After the term, a statute supplies what a holdover becomes. If the tenant stays on with the landlord's agreement, either as a holdover or as a month-to-month tenant, and no new lease is signed, the terms of the ended agreement stay in effect and govern the new tenancy by operation of the statute (section 55.1-1253, subsection D). The trigger is the landlord's agreement, not the acceptance of rent. Two features follow. The old lease terms carry over whole rather than a bare periodic tenancy arising, and the landlord may change the rent unilaterally inside that tenancy: the new amount is either the amount in the ended agreement or an amount set out in a written notice to the tenant, and it cannot take effect until the next rent due date falling 30 days after the notice. Where the landlord consents to the tenant's continued occupancy, the rental-agreement terms section applies (section 55.1-1253, subsection C).

Automatic-renewal reminder (60 days before): A landlord owning more than four rental dwelling units in the Commonwealth, or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four, must give written notice of any rent increase in the following term to a tenant who has an option to renew or whose lease contains an automatic renewal provision, no less than 60 days before the end of the current term (section 55.1-1204, subsection K). The statute states no consequence for omitting the notice; the chapter's general enforcement section is the only route. From July 1, 2027 the rent-increase notice moves to 90 days and must state a deadline, no sooner than 30 days after delivery, by which the tenant says whether the lease will be renewed.

A fixed-term lease ends on its own date, and at that point the tenant must promptly vacate; if the tenant does not, the landlord may sue for possession and damages including reasonable attorney fees (section 55.1-1233). Since July 1, 2025 that plain rule has an important exception: a landlord who owns more than four rental dwelling units in Virginia, or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four, must give the tenant written notice of non-renewal at least 60 days before the end of the term, and the same 60 days applies to notice of a rent increase in a renewal term (section 55.1-1204, subsection K). No Virginia statute requires the tenant to give notice that a fixed term will not be renewed, and no statute renews a term automatically without the landlord's agreement. If the tenant stays with that agreement, the ended lease's terms continue to govern the holdover or month-to-month tenancy. From July 1, 2027 the rent-increase leg of the notice grows to 90 days and must carry a tenant response deadline, while the non-renewal leg stays at 60 days.

A tenant who stays past the end of the term or the termination date without the landlord's consent holds no tenancy at all: the landlord may bring an action for possession straight away, with no further notice, and the chapter independently obliges the tenant to vacate promptly. A tenant who stays with the landlord's agreement becomes a holdover or month-to-month tenant on the terms of the ended lease.

Damages: The lease may set holdover rent up to a stated percentage. Qualifiers: the multiple is a maximum, not the award; the lease may fix the holdover rent within a limit; prorated by the day; and attorney fees added by statute.

For a holdover without consent the landlord may recover possession, actual damages, reasonable attorney fees and court costs, unless the tenant proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the failure to vacate by the termination date was reasonable, a tenant-side defense with the burden expressly on the tenant. On top of that, the lease may provide a reasonable liquidated damage penalty of not more than 150 percent of the per diem of the monthly rent for each day the tenant stays past the termination date named in the landlord's notice; for a public housing unit or another unit regulated by the federal housing department the ceiling drops to 100 percent of the per diem (section 55.1-1253, subsection C). Three things about that figure are commonly misstated. It is a ceiling on what a lease may charge, not a sum the statute awards, so a lease with no such clause leaves the landlord with actual damages alone. It is a percentage of the daily rent, not of the monthly rent: 150 percent of the monthly rent divided by the days in the month, for each day of holdover. And Virginia has no double-rent or treble-rent holdover statute of any kind.

Yes: a statute imposes the duty.

When it attaches: The duty attaches on any termination of the rental agreement, in the statute's own words if the rental agreement is terminated, and not only where the tenant has abandoned the unit. Two other sections point back to the same rule: the abandonment section says the landlord shall mitigate damages in accordance with it, and the deposit section says a tenant who ends the lease before its expiration, or who gives improper notice of termination, is liable for actual damages under it. Three doors, one standard.

Burden of proof: no authority allocates it.

The standard: The statute states no standard of effort. It does not say reasonable efforts, and it does not describe what the landlord must do to re-rent. What it does instead is limit the money: actual damages for breach may include rent that would have accrued until the expiration of the term or until a tenancy under a new rental agreement begins, whichever comes first, and nothing in the section diminishes the landlord's duty to mitigate actual damages (section 55.1-1251). Rent damages therefore stop the day a new tenancy starts, and the duty to mitigate sits on top of that limit rather than replacing it.

A lease clause accelerating all remaining rent on default is void.

The lease may not waive the duty.

Virginia puts the duty in the statute. When a rental agreement is terminated the landlord may claim possession, rent, actual damages for breach, reasonable attorney fees and the cost of serving certain notices or process; and the claim for future rent runs only until the term would have expired or until a new tenancy begins, whichever comes first, with the duty to mitigate expressly preserved (section 55.1-1251). The same section bars acceleration outright: in a post-possession action the landlord shall not seek a judgment for accelerated rent through the end of the term. Nothing in the statute says who must prove that the landlord did or did not try to re-rent, and no Virginia appellate decision construes the mitigation clause in a residential tenancy, so the burden is left where the statute leaves it. The decision most often cited as Virginia's mitigation authority, Mullen v. Brantley, arose from a contract between two restaurant franchisees rather than from a lease and carries no landlord-tenant holding. Because the chapter makes unenforceable any lease term by which the tenant waives or forgoes rights or remedies under it, the lease cannot contract the duty away. One landlord-side procedural rule travels with the section: in an unlawful detainer the court may enter a judgment for money and for possession at the same time without crediting the security deposit, which is instead accounted for later under the deposit section when the tenant actually leaves.

No statute addresses a fee a landlord may charge for ending a lease early; the general damages rules govern.

No Virginia statute authorizes, caps or bars a fee for ending a residential lease early, and the chapter contains no reletting charge, no buy-out formula and no liquidated-damages default. What a tenant who leaves early owes instead is mitigated actual damages: the parties may agree in writing to an early termination, and where no such agreement is reached the remedy-after-termination section controls (section 55.1-1253, subsection A), with the deposit section saying the same thing from the other side, that a tenant who ends the lease before it expires or gives improper notice is liable for actual damages under that section (section 55.1-1226, subsection A). Acceleration of the remaining rent is barred. Two express bans do exist, each attached to a protected right to leave: the landlord may not charge any liquidated damages on a military termination (section 55.1-1235, subsection C) or on a termination by a victim of family abuse, sexual abuse, criminal sexual assault, stalking or trafficking (section 55.1-1236, subsection D). Several backstops limit what a lease may charge in this area. The chapter makes unenforceable a term by which the tenant waives or forgoes rights or remedies under it, a confession of judgment, an agreement to pay the landlord's attorney fees except as the chapter allows, and a pre-dispute waiver of federal servicemember protections; a landlord who sues to enforce such a term owes the tenant actual damages and attorney fees (section 55.1-1208). Since July 1, 2026 no landlord may require a tenant to pay a fee for maintenance or repair of a dwelling unit unless the tenant's own violation made it necessary. And the first page of a written lease must itemize the deposit, the rent and any one-time charge due before the tenancy starts or included in the first rent payment, which constrains any up-front early-exit charge (section 55.1-1204.1). The one percentage figure in the chapter, 150 percent of the per diem of monthly rent, is a ceiling on holdover damages and is not an early-termination cap. Virginia's own regulations were read for this answer at the level of the three housing agencies' chapter titles: the chapter delegates no rulemaking on termination, fees or notice to any agency, and no Virginia regulation addresses early-termination fees.

Early-exit rights by ground: domestic violence and related grounds, a statutory right to end the lease; military service beyond the federal act, state orders or National Guard duty are covered and a deployment or transfer threshold below the federal act's; death of the tenant, a statutory route; and other statutory grounds.

Domestic violence and related grounds: a victim may end the lease on notice.

Who qualifies: A tenant who is a victim of family abuse as the juvenile court law defines it, of sexual abuse or other criminal sexual assault, of stalking, or of trafficking (section 55.1-1236, subsection A). The right runs to the tenant as victim. There is no relationship requirement, no requirement that the incident happened at the property, and no requirement that the perpetrator be a member of the household. Trafficking was added in 2025 and the section's own heading was never updated to mention it, so the heading understates who is covered; the operative text governs.

Documentation: Court documents only, by three routes, and the list is closed. First, a protective order issued in a family-abuse case, preliminary or permanent, obtained during the term of an active and current rental agreement, with the termination notice given while the order or an extension of it is running. Second, a preliminary or permanent protective order issued in the general acts-of-violence and stalking track, on the same timing conditions. Third, an order convicting a perpetrator, or a warrant, summons, information or indictment charging a person, issued by a court, magistrate, law-enforcement agency, grand jury or special grand jury, for sexual assault, sexual abuse, family abuse, stalking or trafficking against the victim during the term of an active and current rental agreement. A copy of the order or the charging document must go to the landlord with the notice. Virginia accepts no self-certification, no advocate or counselor letter and no police incident report for a termination; those documents work only for the separate duty at application described below. The notice and the documentation go to the landlord together.

Window: Virginia sets no number of days between the incident and the notice. It uses a currency condition instead: the protective order, conviction order or charging document must have issued during the term of an active and current rental agreement, and where the route is a protective order the termination notice must be given while that order or an extension of it is still running. A conviction order carries slightly further, letting the victim end the lease in force when the order was entered and one later lease on the same conviction.

Notice: 28 days; the termination takes effect that many days after notice. The tenant serves a written notice of termination on the landlord, to take effect 28 days after service, with a copy of the protective order or of the conviction order, warrant, summons, information or indictment (section 55.1-1236, subsection B). The 28 days run forward from service, so unlike an ordinary month-to-month notice this one is not tied to a rent due date. The figure was 30 days until July 1, 2025, when an act of that year struck 30 and wrote in 28; tables that still say 30 are describing the old text.

Rent owed: Rent stays payable at the times the lease requires through the effective date of the termination, and nothing is owed beyond it (section 55.1-1236, subsection C). The tenant's own duty to look after the dwelling unit also runs to that same date.

Cost to the tenant: Nothing. The statute says in one sentence that the landlord may not charge any liquidated damages for the termination (section 55.1-1236, subsection D), and it authorizes no fee, penalty or forfeiture of any kind. The deposit is returned under the chapter's ordinary deposit rules.

Other tenants on the lease: the lease continues for the other tenants. Any co-tenants on the lease with the victim remain responsible for the rent for the balance of the term; the victim's departure releases the victim, not the household (section 55.1-1236, subsection E). The statute attaches no condition about the remaining tenants' ability to pay and requires no new screening or new lease. Where the perpetrator is the only tenant left on the agreement, the landlord may terminate it and recover actual damages for that termination against the perpetrator.

Locks: The victim may require the landlord to change the locks. The right sits in a different section from the termination right and it is conditional. A tenant or authorized occupant who has obtained a court order granting possession of the premises to the exclusion of one or more co-tenants or authorized occupants may give the landlord a copy of the order and require the landlord either to install a new lock or other security devices on the exterior doors at the landlord's actual cost, or to permit the tenant to install them, provided the work does no permanent damage and duplicate keys and operating instructions go to the landlord; at the end of the tenancy the tenant pays the reasonable cost of removing the devices and repairing any damage (section 55.1-1230, subsection A). The landlord who has received such an order may not give keys to the person the order excludes. Two limits matter: victim status alone is not enough, an exclusive-possession court order is needed, and the section does not apply at all where the order excluding the person was issued without notice to that person, so an emergency order does not unlock the right.

Later screening: no protection against reporting or characterization; a narrower bar applies. Virginia's protection at application is a duty to weigh rather than a bar. A landlord shall consider evidence of an applicant's status as a victim of family abuse to mitigate any adverse effect of an otherwise qualified applicant's low credit score, and the applicant may establish that status with a letter from a sexual and domestic violence program, a housing counselor certified by the federal housing department or the applicant's attorney, a law-enforcement incident report, or a court order; a landlord who does not comply owes the applicant actual damages, a refund of the application fee, deposit and out-of-pocket charges, and attorney fees (section 55.1-1203, subsection D). Note that this list of documents is wider than the one that supports a lease termination. Virginia has no statute barring a landlord or a screening service from reporting or characterizing a past victim termination, and no free-standing bar on refusing to rent because of victim status. Separately, once a perpetrator has been barred from the unit by the landlord or by a court order and the tenant has supplied the order, the lease may not be terminated solely because of an act of family abuse against the tenant (section 55.1-1245, subsection D).

The landlord's side: The landlord is entitled to a copy of the protective order or of the conviction order, warrant, summons, information or indictment before the termination takes effect. Where the perpetrator is the sole remaining tenant on the agreement, the landlord may end that agreement and recover actual damages for the termination from the perpetrator (section 55.1-1236, subsection E). Against those rights the chapter sets one duty: a lease may not be terminated solely because of an act of family abuse committed against the tenant, once the perpetrator has been barred from the unit by the landlord or by a court order and the tenant has given the landlord a copy of the order (section 55.1-1245, subsection D). Virginia imposes no confidentiality duty on the documents, though a landlord holding an exclusion order may not hand keys to the excluded person.

A tenant who is a victim of family abuse, sexual abuse or other criminal sexual assault, stalking, or trafficking may end the lease by serving a written notice of termination on the landlord to take effect 28 days later, with a copy of a qualifying protective order, conviction order or charging document (section 55.1-1236). The qualifying document must have issued during the term of an active and current lease, and where it is a protective order the notice must be given while that order or an extension of it is running; there is no other time limit. Rent runs to the effective date and no further, and the landlord may not charge any liquidated damages. Co-tenants stay bound for the rest of the term, and where the perpetrator is the only tenant left the landlord may end that lease and pursue the perpetrator for damages. A separate section lets a tenant holding a court order that excludes another occupant require new locks at the landlord's cost, unless the order was issued without notice to the excluded person. At the application stage a landlord must treat evidence of family-abuse victim status as a factor mitigating a low credit score, on a wider list of documents than a termination requires. Virginia requires no notice of any of this in the lease and imposes no confidentiality duty on the paperwork.

Military service: State orders or National Guard duty are covered and a deployment or transfer threshold below the federal act's.

When the state rights attach: The chapter's own right belongs to a member of the Armed Forces of the United States and to a member of the National Guard serving on full-time duty or as a civil service technician with the Guard; it is not open to a Guard member on ordinary drill status. The second instrument reaches a member of the Virginia National Guard only where the active duty orders, under Title 32 of the federal code or from the Governor for state active duty, are for a period of 30 consecutive days or more.

Virginia gives a servicemember two routes. The chapter's own section lets a member of the Armed Forces, or a National Guard member on full-time duty or working as a civil service technician, terminate the lease on five grounds: permanent change of station orders; temporary duty orders longer than three months; discharge or release from active duty or from full-time or technician status; an order to report to government-supplied quarters that costs the member the housing allowance; or a stop movement order issued in response to a local, national or global emergency, effective indefinitely or for at least 30 days, that keeps the member from living in the unit. The written notice takes effect on a date the notice names, which must be at least 30 days after the first rent due date falling after the notice is given, and before that date the tenant supplies a copy of the orders or a signed letter from the commanding officer confirming them. The landlord may not charge any liquidated damages, and the tenant's duty to look after the unit continues (section 55.1-1235). Two of those grounds, the three-month temporary duty and the 30-day stop movement order, reach further than the federal act's 90-day deployment threshold, and the technician class and the quarters-order ground have no federal counterpart. The second route sits outside the landlord-tenant title: any right, benefit or protection that would accrue to a Virginia National Guard member under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act on a call to federal active duty is extended to a member called to Title 32 active duty or to state active duty by the Governor, where the orders run 30 consecutive days or more (section 44-102.1, subsection A), and the federal act's lease-termination right travels with it. Neither instrument gives a spouse or dependent a right of their own to end a lease; the dependent-inclusive list elsewhere in the same section covers telephone, internet, television, gym, satellite radio and alarm contracts and does not reach a residential lease. A lease may not require the tenant to waive federal servicemember rights before a dispute arises, and signing a lease may not be made conditional on such a waiver. An act effective July 1, 2026 removed the former outer limit that had barred a termination date more than 60 days before the departure the orders required, so only the 30-day floor now shapes the date.

Death of the tenant: A statute provides for ending the lease on the tenant's death. Where the tenant who dies was the sole tenant under a written rental agreement and was still living in the unit, the agreement is treated as terminated by the landlord as of the date of death, and the landlord need not go to court for an order of possession (section 55.1-1256, subsection C). Termination is automatic: there is no notice period and no election to make. The estate stays liable for actual damages under the remedy-after-termination section, and the landlord must mitigate those damages, so the death ends the tenancy without ending the money claim. Co-tenants and oral agreements fall outside the rule. Before disposing of the tenant's personal property the landlord gives 10 days' written notice to the person the tenant named as an emergency contact, or, if none was named, to the tenant at the usual notice address; authorized occupants, guests and invitees may not stay on after the sole remaining tenant's death and must leave before the 10 days end. What then happens to the property itself is covered separately from this page.

Other grounds: Five further statutory grounds let a Virginia tenant leave early. Where the landlord wilfully fails to deliver possession at the start of the tenancy, rent abates until possession is delivered and the tenant may end the agreement on at least five days' written notice, on which all prepaid rent and deposits come back; a wilful bad-faith failure also carries actual damages and reasonable attorney fees (section 55.1-1238). Where fire or other casualty damages the unit so that the tenant's enjoyment is substantially impaired, or repairs require the tenant to move out, either side may end the agreement: the tenant by moving out and serving written notice of the intention to terminate within 14 days afterwards, with the agreement ending as of the date of vacating, and the landlord on 14 days' notice (section 55.1-1240); from January 1, 2027 both windows become 21 days, the landlord must first try to meet the tenant and offer a substantially similar unit in the same complex where one is available, and the tenant gains seven days to ask for a re-evaluation of the damage. In a foreclosure, a tenant of a single-family residence whose landlord failed to pass on the lender's notice of default, acceleration or sale within five business days may end the lease on at least five business days' written notice; a purchaser at the sale who will live in the unit as a primary residence must give the tenant written notice ending the agreement on a date at least 90 days out, while any other purchaser takes subject to the lease for the rest of its term (section 55.1-1237). Where the tenant had reported a building-code violation posing a substantial risk to health, safety or welfare and that violation caused the unit to be condemned and the tenant excluded, the landlord owes actual damages and must return unaccrued prepaid rent, the deposit and any rent paid after the condemnation, unless the tenant or a guest caused it, an act of God caused it, or the lease had already been properly ended for casualty (section 55.1-1243.2). And in a tenancy at will, a notice by either party of any change in the terms of the tenancy is itself a notice to vacate (section 55.1-1225). Virginia has no age, disability, care-facility or job-transfer termination right. Ending a lease because the landlord will not repair, and protection against retaliation, are covered on the habitability page.

The landlord serves a notice of belief and the tenant has a window to respond. The tenant's window to respond is 7 days.

Answering the presumption or notice: The tenant defeats the presumption by giving the landlord written notice, within seven days of the landlord's notice, that the tenant intends to remain in occupancy. The landlord must also stop treating the unit as abandoned if he otherwise determines that the tenant is still living there. The presumption that arises after the seven days is a rebuttable one, and the statute allocates no burden for rebutting it.

Abandonment ends a Virginia tenancy by operation of the statute rather than merely starting a re-letting duty, and it does so at two different moments (section 55.1-1249). Where the landlord can tell the tenant has gone, the rental agreement is treated as terminated by the landlord as of the date of abandonment, which reaches back to the tenant's own act. Where the landlord cannot tell, he serves written notice on the tenant requiring the tenant to give written notice within seven days that the tenant intends to remain; if no such notice comes back and the landlord does not otherwise determine that the tenant is still in occupancy, then at the end of those seven days a rebuttable presumption of abandonment arises and the agreement is treated as terminated on that date. The landlord must then mitigate damages under the remedy-after-termination section. Two related rules in the same section are not abandonment tests and should not be read as one: if the lease requires the tenant to report an anticipated absence longer than seven days and the tenant does not, the landlord may recover actual damages; and during any absence longer than seven days the landlord may enter the unit at times reasonably necessary to protect his possessions and property. Neither ends a tenancy, so a seven-day absence by itself does not end a Virginia tenancy. What the landlord may do with property the tenant leaves behind is covered separately from this page.

Virginia prescribes addresses rather than methods. A notice to the landlord is served at his place of business where the rental agreement was made, or at any place he holds out as the place for receiving such communications; a notice to the tenant is served at the tenant's last known place of residence, which may be the dwelling unit itself (section 55.1-1202, subsection B). There is no statutory cascade of personal service, then substitute service, then posting; no certified-mail requirement; and no prescribed form for a no-cause termination notice. The service cascade landlords associate with Virginia belongs to the unlawful detainer summons under Title 8.01 and is court process, covered on the eviction page. The landlord may delegate the giving of any notice to a managing agent or other third party under a written agreement, or engage an attorney to prepare or give it. A notice received by an organization takes effect when it is brought to the attention of the person conducting the transaction, or when it would have been had the organization exercised reasonable diligence.

Electronic delivery: only with written consent, a read receipt, or a lease clause.

What the notice must contain: The notice must be written and, for a no-cause termination, the chapter prescribes no form and requires no statement of grounds. Two content rules keyed specifically to notices of termination of tenancy do apply, and both make a non-compliant notice ineffective rather than merely penalizing it (section 55.1-1202, subsection D). A notice served by a public housing authority is ineffective unless its first page carries, in type no smaller or less legible than the body of the notice, the name, address and telephone number of the legal aid program serving the jurisdiction where the premises sits. A notice served by a private landlord on a tenant receiving tenant-based rental assistance through the federal housing choice voucher program or any other federal, state or local program is ineffective unless its first page carries the statewide legal aid telephone number and website address. Both reach a no-cause termination notice as much as a for-cause one. From July 1, 2027 a further rule takes effect for nonpayment notices only, requiring a statement of charges and payments; that is a for-cause requirement and is covered on the eviction page.

Virginia's chapter reaches federal law at four points. Public housing and other units regulated by the federal housing department are subject to the chapter, but those regulations control where the two are inconsistent, so federal good-cause and grievance requirements operate in Virginia through that clause rather than through any state just-cause statute (section 55.1-1201, subsection A). The ceiling on a lease's holdover liquidated damages drops from 150 percent to 100 percent of the per diem of monthly rent for a public housing unit or another unit the federal housing department regulates (section 55.1-1253, subsection C). A termination notice served on a tenant holding a federal housing choice voucher, or assistance under another program, is ineffective unless its first page carries the statewide legal aid telephone number and website address (section 55.1-1202, subsection D). And a lease may not require the tenant to waive rights or remedies under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act before a dispute arises, nor be made conditional on such a waiver, though the parties may waive as to a dispute once it has arisen (section 55.1-1208, subsection A). The federal Violence Against Women Act supplies no Virginia termination right: the state's victim-termination section stands on its own and is open to every tenant under the chapter, not only to tenants in covered housing programs.

The federal CARES Act 30-day notice to vacate for covered properties, as read in this state's courts: held in force, but a filing inside the 30 days is permitted. Woodrock River Walk LLC v. Rice, Record No. 1860-23-3 (Va. Ct. App. Oct. 8, 2024), 906 S.E.2d 682, is published Virginia appellate authority on the point and it arose from an apartment tenancy under the chapter. The court held that neither a summons nor a notice of termination requires a tenant to leave, that a landlord may remove a tenant only when an officer executes a writ of eviction, and therefore that the federal 30-day notice provision is violated only when an officer executes a writ during the 30 days after the landlord served a notice to vacate. The landlord may file the case inside the 30 days. The court also held that the provision preempts the chapter's own duty on a tenant to vacate promptly, giving a tenant of a covered dwelling 30 days to remain after receiving a notice to vacate, and it reached that result while noting that the neighboring 120-day filing moratorium in the same federal act has expired, which is direct authority against the claim that the 30-day notice lapsed with it. (Appellate picture read as of September 4, 2026.)

2026 Va. Acts ch. 1066 (HB 678), signed April 22, 2026, takes effect July 1, 2027: Splits the end-of-term clock a landlord with more than four rental dwelling units must keep. Today one 60-day notice covers both a rent increase in a renewal term and a non-renewal. From this date the rent-increase notice moves to 90 days before the end of the term and must state a deadline, no sooner than 30 days after it is delivered, by which the tenant says whether the lease will be renewed; the non-renewal notice stays at 60 days and is restated as a duty owed where the landlord is not renewing. The carve-out for a month-to-month tenancy created by a consented holdover survives. This moves the end-of-term notice figure and the renewal reminder. Text: Va. Code § 55.1-1204(K) (effective July 1, 2027).

2026 Va. Acts ch. 1117 (HB 834), signed May 14, 2026, takes effect January 1, 2027: Rewrites the fire-and-casualty termination ground. The tenant's window to serve written notice after moving out grows from 14 days to 21, and the landlord's notice period grows from 14 days to 21. The landlord's notice is newly conditioned on having first met or made a reasonable effort to meet the tenant to discuss the extent of the damage and any reasonable alternative to ending the lease, and on having checked whether a substantially similar unit in the same complex is available within a reasonable time and, if so, offered it on the tenant's current terms, unless the damage came from the tenant's own breach. The tenant also gains a right, within seven days of a termination notice, to ask the landlord to re-evaluate the damage and the unit's habitability, with the tenant involved in that re-evaluation. Text: Va. Code § 55.1-1240 (effective January 1, 2027).

2026 Va. Acts ch. 1111 (HB 329), signed May 14, 2026, takes effect January 1, 2027: Rewrites the retaliation section in a way that reaches non-renewal directly. It lists among retaliatory actions both terminating a tenancy under the ordinary termination section and refusing to renew a tenancy where the tenant receives assistance through the federal housing choice voucher program or any other federal, state or local program, and it gives the landlord safe harbors, including a notice to terminate given before the tenant did the protected act and a failure to renew an assisted tenancy for good cause. It also broadens the protected acts and deletes the sentence placing the burden of proving retaliatory intent on the tenant. From that date a landlord who knows of a protected act may not refuse to renew an assisted tenancy except for good cause, a condition on no-cause non-renewal arriving through the retaliation rules rather than through a just-cause statute. Text: Va. Code § 55.1-1258 (effective January 1, 2027).